Lance Porter - 28 Days to Diabetes Control!: How to Lower Your Blood Sugar, Improve Your Health, and Reduce Your Risk of Diabetes Complications

A valuable and essential reference tool on how to best manage diabetes.

Lisa Yourman, mother of 13-year-old
extreme athlete Sarah Yourman

Whether you are newly diagnosed or have lived with diabetes for 42 years, as I have, you will use this book long after your 28-day program is over. Keep it by your side to help you take good care of your diabetes.

Judith Jones Ambrosini, Healthy Living
Writer, Diabetes Exercise & Sports
Association board member, and author of
Judiths Cyber Kitchen at diabetesnet.com

The key to managing diabetes is to learn as much about it as possible. Lance Porters book is the perfect place to start.

Kris Freeman, Under-23 World Champion
Cross Country Skier

An extremely helpful, straightforward book for all of us diagnosed with diabetes who wondered, What do I do now? Diabetes doesnt have to mean we give things up; we just have to learn how to be more organized, and Lance tells us how.

Midge Cross, member of the 2002 Ford
Expedition to Everest

This book actually motivates you to make positive changes and remain positive even if you dont accomplish all your goals.

Jamie Dillinger, RN, Diabetes Nurse
Specialist

An effective guide to help those of us with diabetes get better control quickly. I highly recommend this valuable resource.

Will Cross, Arctic Explorer

This book is one small step to understanding diabetes control and one giant leap toward developing a proven strategy for a high-quality life free of diabetes complications.

Bill King, Marathon Runner and DCCT
Study Participant

A long, healthy life is something you can get by following the plan in 28 Days to Diabetes Control! A fantastic book. I wish it had been available years ago!

Ozzie Roberts, 85-year-old World Traveler

So much relevant and useful information for the newly diagnosed or veteranat home or under the light of a headlamp in a tent at 20,000 feet!

David Panofsky, Mountain Climber

LOWER YOUR BLOOD SUGAR,
IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH,
AND REDUCE YOUR RISK OF
DIABETES COMPLICATIONS

LANCE PORTER

Editor-in-Chief of Diabetes Positive! magazine
Foreword by Michael Heile, M.D.

The information contained in this book is not intended to serve as a replacement for professional medical advice. Any use of the information in this book is at the readers discretion. The author and publisher specifically disclaim any and all liability arising directly or indirectly from the use or application of any information contained in this book. A health-care professional should be consulted regarding your specific situation.

Copyright 2004 by Lance Porter

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

M. Evans and Company, Inc.
216 East 49th Street
New York, NY 10017

Library of Congress Cataloging-in Publication Data

Porter, Lance.

28 days to diabetes control! : lower your blood sugar, improve your

health, and reduce your risk of diabetes complications / Lance Porter ;

foreword by Michael Heile.

p. cm.

ISBN: 978-1-59077-041-2

1. Diabetes--Popular works. 2. Diabetes--Treatment--Popular works.

I. Title: Twenty-eight days to diabetes control!. II. Title.

RC660.4.P677 2004

616.46206--dc22

2003022769

I was very honored when Lance Porter asked me to write this foreword for his book.

I first met Lance when he interviewed me for an article in Diabetes Positive! magazine. He contacted me because I was someone who knew diabetes both as a practicing physician and as a person with diabetes. I am a family practicioner in Cincinnati, Ohio, with a special interest in the care of people with diabetes (especially those who require insulin). And I have type 1 diabetes myself.

During that interview, Lance asked me questions not only about diabetes in general but also about the care of the diabetic patient. I was very impressed by his intense and genuine interest in understanding the dynamics of this diseaseas well as its psychological impact on the patient. He had a degree of understanding you usually only see in someone with diabetes or in the loved one of a patient with diabetes. (Later, I learned that his father was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes years ago.) His questions and interest went much deeper than needed to write the story of my own personal success with diabetes. It was his intense interest and his tireless study that enabled him to write this phenomenal book.

When you read 28 Days to Diabetes Control! you will see that Lance not only understands the treatment of diabetes, but also the art and empathy needed to empower those of us who have this complicated disease with the ability to control it. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, this book gets to the heart of common sense diabetes care that is critical to achieving control. It offers a very specific and practical approach to people with both types of diabetes.

28 Days to Diabetes Control! also offers important general health information for nondiabetics and people concerned about their potential to become diabetic. It is an essential guide for anyone who has a friend or family member with diabetes. I also recommend this to my fellow physicians and other healthcare professionals who need to build more successful diabetes strategies and management plans for their patients.

I know from personal experience how hard diabetes is to control. I was diagnosed with juvenile-onset diabetes at the age of 21, just prior to graduation from college.

The standards of diabetes care then were very different than they are today. The insulin and dietary plan I was given was nearly impossible to follow. Even when it was followed perfectly, it was often unsuccessful. I thought my life was over. Through medical school, my sugars were horrendous on twice-daily injections. I was on a roller-coaster: my sugars were either 40 or 300. There was no such thing as a planned or predictable healthy meal while working 48-72 hour shifts at the hospital. But the best advice my diabetes doctors offered was going back for dietary training.

Finally, after some persuasion, my primary care doctor allowed me to switch to multiple daily injections (often five or six) with insulin for meals, so that my life did not revolve around my insulin doses. This helped to some degreebut going into residency with diabetes was a nightmare. I remember running to code (resuscitate) a patient in the middle of the night at the hospital and bottoming out my blood sugars while giving chest compressions. Although it never happened, I feared it was inevitable that the coder (me) was going to get coded for low-sugar coma/seizures. As you can imagine, I was very concerned that my diabetes would affect my ability to be a dependable physician. I remember worrying every moment about what my blood sugar was and what it was going to do.

Before graduating residency, about seven years ago, I discovered the insulin pump. At that time, not many doctors knew much about the insulin pumpalthough it had been available for years. To me, it looked like the most natural way to administer insulin for tighter control and a better lifestyle. But again, my diabetes doctors were reluctant to approve a change (most likely out of lack of knowledge about this type of therapy).